• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.3 s.120
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• pp.434-452
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• 2007

The globalization of the economy has strengthened competition in all industries. Facing an intensely competitive environment, the firm's choice of location is one of the most important strategies in enhancing its competitiveness. This paper aims to examine the locational changes and the spatial restructuring of suppliers firm with regard to modularization and customer diversification which result from the process of assembler's restructuring after the financial crisis. Some experimental findings which have been identified throughout this study can be summarized as follows: First, a number of suppliers has been located in the southern Seoul metropolitan area and northern Chungcheong area. And Hyundai's suppliers has been enlarged in the Seoul metropolitan area and Kia's in the Southeastern area. Second, suppliers who transact with several assemblers(network trade) tend to be more dispersed, but dedicated(exclusive) suppliers are more concentrated on assembly plants. Also it was confirmed that 'JIS(Just In Sequence)' system which is more detailed than 'JIT(Just In Time)'system has been used. Third, it was Prominent that suppliers are internalizing in order to reach economies of scale compare to assemblers are externalizing.